The Foreign Secretary was on the defensive following a firefight between Algerian soldiers and the Khaled Abu al-Abbas Brigade, which had taken staff hostage at the BP gas plant. Three Britons and one Colombian-born British resident were among 81 people killed in the battle.

Anti-war activists poured scorn on Mr Hague following speculation the group had bought its weapons from Libya’s missing stockpiles of arms supplied by Western nations to rebels two years ago in a bid to overthrow the Gaddafi regime.

Mr Hague admitted to reporters yesterday that terrorists in the region had “taken advantage” of the glut of arms in Libya.

But he insisted violence in the region could have been even worse had Britain and other nations had let the civil war continue without them.

“If the Libyan conflict had gone on for longer, there would have been an even greater flow of weapons and an even greater opportunity for extremists to take hold in Libya,” he said.

“It’s speculative. William Hague is trying to evade responsibility for Britain and the EU selling arms to Libya.”

As recently as 2011 Britain’s trade officials considered Libya a “priority market” for arms sales, while EU figures showed Britain alone approved £238,608 in small arms to the Gaddafi regime between 2005 and 2009.

France, now embroiled in terrorist conflicts in both Algeria and neighbouring Mali, also signed off on €2.3m (£1.9m) worth of ammunition and fuses in the same period.

Even after Britain imposed a temporary embargo, EU members still approved another €34m (£28.5m) in arms export licences.

Meanwhile the group behind last week’s kidnappings threatened further plots against French and other Western nations’ Algerian holdings.

The Algerian government said yesterday that the death toll from the four-day siege at the Ain Amenas natural gas plant had risen to 38: here.

After all the bloggers who were so kind to nominate Dear Kitty. Some blog for awards, now another award.

Thank so very much Arlen Shahverdyan, for nominating me for the Very Inspiring Blogger award!

Arlen’s beautiful blog, in Armenian and English, is about wildlife, visual arts, poetry and other subjects.

The rules are to thank and link back to the blogger which has nominated you, then post the award logo to your blog, write a post on the nomination and nominate 15 other very inspiring bloggers. Notify them; and tell 7 things about yourself.

January 2013. As the heat wave in Australia continues, many birds may no longer be able to take the heat and large numbers could die as a result, researchers at the Universities of Cape Town and Pretoria warn.

“Heat waves in 2009 and 2010, which did not reach the intensity of the current record-breaking heat wave, led to large die-offs of birds in parts of Australia” says Prof. Andrew McKechnie. Over the last few days, people are beginning to report finding dead birds in their backyards on Twitter. Conditions are likely worsening as the heat wave wears on.

An international research team, led by researchers at the Percy FitzPatrick Instutute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town, are investigating how heat waves affect the physiology and behaviour of birds. They are on high alert for reports of impacts of the current Australian heat wave as such events will be valuable for predicting how climate change will affect birds.

Birds lose condition above 35 ºC

A recent study by the team in Southern Africa’s Kalahari revealed that on days when temperatures exceeded 35 ºC, a temperature far below those currently being experienced across much of Australia, wild birds began to lose body condition. “At higher temperatures, the demands of keeping cool meant that the bird’s ability to forage was compromised and their feeding rate declined as temperatures increased” says Dr. Rowan Martin of the Percy FitzPatrick Institute. These effects could accumulate over a number of days with long-term consequences for populations.

Another study by the team, in collaboration with the University of New Mexico, suggests that at higher temperatures impacts could be more immediate. At temperatures of 45 ºC, and without access to water, the time for hydration levels to drop below thresholds critical for survival could be as short as 4 hours for a 5g bird, or 5.5 hours for a 25 g bird.

Many Australians are putting out extra water for wild birds and other animals which could prove critical to their survival. Ensuring such water dishes are placed in the shade may help further.

Any discussion of documentary film can potentially lead to some prickly issues, particularly on the subject of realism.

Critics have accused some of its practitioners as being simply illusionists who manipulate their subjects in order to create drama and box office profit.

So if you are looking for a book which tackles contentious theoretical issues like this, best look elsewhere. While A New History of Documentary Film is content to occasionally mention these sorts of arguments it remains largely detached from them.

This is probably a sensible move as the purpose of Betsy A McLane’s book is to chart the progression and diversification of the documentary film rather than become bogged down in debates about authenticity or impartiality.

And McLane proves there is more than enough interest in examining the style and content of documentary films themselves and the changing political, financial and social factors that have shaped them historically.

Her book demonstrates too how documentary film has affected society as a potent tool for social change.

It’s hinted that Britain’s wartime documentaries, which explored the potential of post-war opportunities and social improvement, contributed in no small way to Labour’s historic 1945 election and the public reforms which followed.

While taking an objective view on the value of political issues like this, the book remains mostly politically neutral.

But it does have an agenda – that of the gradually diminishing artistic quality of documentary filmmaking. There is an anxiety that the visually inventive and poetic “art of the documentary” as fostered by such pioneers as Robert J Flaherty, Humphrey Jennings and Pare Lorentz, is being lost in the homogenised and commercialised world of TV and the conversion to cheaper but lower quality technology like video.

McLane implies that all too often documentary filmmakers are sacrificing style in favour of content – interestingly, the criticism is frequently levelled against their counterparts in fiction films – and that artful execution and the skilful use of film technique are qualities which are quickly fading into the background.

This intriguing argument is reinforced by McLane’s obvious passion for and masterful knowledge of her subject.

But the book isn’t without flaws, the most immediately visible being the low quality of the stills reproduced.

More problematically, it occasionally falls into the trap of simply listing filmmakers and their work.

Perhaps this is to be expected because while the book limits itself to recounting the history of predominately English-language documentary films, the author is still faced with a potentially overwhelming amount of source material.

Luckily McLane’s breezy but articulate prose means these segments aren’t too much of a chore and her evident enthusiasm will leave readers not only better informed about the subject but also raring to locate and watch the films she’s discussing.

As such the book is a fine testament to a fascinating, diverse and unfairly marginalised strand of filmmaking.

January 2103. Two brothers from Amble caused illegal disturbance to a rare seabird colony in Northumberland, a court has ruled. Derwick and Leslie Ramsay were found guilty at South East Northumberland Magistrates Court of the reckless disturbance of roseate terns on the bird sanctuary Coquet Island in July 2012.

The pair were prosecuted under the 1981 Country And Wildlife Act, which forbids the intentional and or reckless killing, injuring and disturbance of wild birds. The offence carries a maximum sentence of a £5,000 fine and/or six months in prison.

Caught on CCTV

Derwick Ramsay, together with four other men who were not prosecuted, landed boats on the island on 20 July allegedly to collect whelks. They were warned about the presence of breeding roseate terns by RSPB staff but this was ignored. On 22 July, Derwick returned with his brother Leslie, who was recorded on CCTV disturbing the birds. On returning to Amble marina Derwick and Leslie, together with four other men, were arrested and their boats were seized by Northumbria Police.

The only colony of breeding roseate terns in the UK

Coquet Island holds the only colony of breeding roseate terns in the UK and as a result, landing on the island is strictly prohibited. Roseate terns are a ‘red listed’ species of high conservation concern and, as a ground nesting bird, they are particularly vulnerable to human disturbance. At the time of this incident the island held 71 breeding pairs.

Alan Firth, RSPB Investigations officer, said: “Roseate terns are incredibly rare and Coquet Island is effectively the only place they breed in the whole of the UK. Any disturbance to the colony could, therefore, have a disastrous effect on the population.

“The RSPB spends a huge amount of time, money and effort every year to give roseate terns the best chance to breed. This reckless disturbance – that took place despite warnings – threatened to undermine all of the conservation efforts to protect this species.

“We would like to thank Northumbria Police and Crown Prosecution Service Prosecutor Jonathan Moore for their hard work, which helped this case result in a successful prosecution.”

A ST Albans man who champions human rights has voiced his concern after a Freedom of Information (FoI) request showed a local firm successfully applied for a licence to export military equipment to Bahrain.

John Warren, who is involved with Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), said that a FoI request was sent to the Europe, Trade and International Directorate in London asking for the names of companies which had applied for licences to export military equipment to Bahrain during 2009 and 2010.

In response, the directorate gave the names of 16 companies which asked for permission to export equipment, categorised as ML1, ML2 and ML3, to Bahrain.

According to its website, the Hall & Watts Defence Group of Companies, with headquarters at Acrewood Way in St Albans, consists of a number of companies located around the globe including Dubai, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, and it sells products such as artillery sight components.

But John said the FoI response did not say whether companies such as Hall & Watts had actually sold military equipment to Bahrain.

A list detailing what type of military equipment was to be exported showed that out of 33 end-users, the government in Bahrain was the intended recipient for 18 of those licences in 2009/10.

It does not match companies to individual licences, many of which have since been revoked or expired.

But it does show that licences were sought to supply the government with weapon night sights, ammunition, tear gas, components for sub-machine guns, wall and door breaching projectiles, anti-armour ammunition and components for sniper rifles.

CAAT has recently submitted a further FoI request to try to match the companies to particular licences but a spokeswoman for the group said the government had refused to release that information.

John said that he was “greatly concerned” about the possible sale of components or equipment to Bahrain from a St Albans firm before the recent uprising.

He added that he had contacted Hall & Watts to ascertain whether it had supplied such equipment to the Bahrain government, but they had not replied.

John went on: “I realise that as many of the export licences were revoked after the uprisings in the Middle East, that if Hall & Watts had been arming the government there is a strong possibility that they are no longer arming this repressive regime.

“My concern is that any company would be granted a licence to sell weapons and components to a government with such an atrocious human rights record in the first place.”